YMMV / The ClueFinders Reading Adventures Ages 9–12: Mystery of the Missing Amulet

• Ass Pull: Towards the end of the game, Joni tricks Malicia into taking her necklace from the flea market instead of the amulet. This flea market necklace was neither shown nor mentioned prior to Malicia taking it.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: The Reveal that the princess Malveera is actually Malicia in disguise is made entirely obvious via relentless Foreshadowing, including a straight up mural of Malicia that the characters comment looks like the Princess. There’s also the fact that she’s the only character Joni and Owen interact with in the cutscenes.
• Catharsis Factor: After being completely fooled the entire game, it's nothing but cathartic when it's Owen who stops Malicia's attack on the Cluefinders through LapTrap and his shiny reflective surface.
• Complete Monster: Malicia is a Wicked Witch who travels to a planet called Millennia and tries to force its inhabitants, the Doldreks and the Sorrens, to give her their amulet. When they refuse, she encases most of them in ice or stone and turns others into her minions. In the present day, she kidnaps Santiago and Leslie, disguises herself as a princess named Malveera, and tricks Joni and Owen into getting the amulet for her. When they bring it, Malicia reveals her true self and steals what she thinks is the amulet from them. Upon realizing she's been tricked, Malicia decides to keep Santiago and Leslie, in the belief that Joni and Owen will give her the amulet. When our heroes arrive, Malicia has one of her minions grab the amulet, declares her plan to wipe out all life on Millennia and Earth, and attempts to zap the quartet with a ray from the amulet.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The Gates of Mount Valdrok are the same type of game as Wordle. Multiple comparisons have been made between the two.
• Narm: One of the stone heads can be unintentionally funny, if you feed him the wrong answers. You must feed it the correct answer. But if you give it a wrong answer, it sounds like it's throwing up or choking. It actually does help cut down its creepiness though.
• That One Puzzle: The Gates of Mount Valdrok - while you have more guesses than Wordle, you aren't shown which letter(s) are correct. Thus? It's harder than it sounds. You are fortunately allowed to guess nonsense words with the explicit purpose of eliminating or confirming letters.